A gift of sax and quartet

A slightly belated but much appreciated Christmas present to fans of straight-ahead jazz turned up at Spazio in Sherman Oaks on Thursday in the performance of saxophonist Gary Foster with the David Sills quartet.

Foster is a veteran whose extraordinary talents tend to be applied more often to his work as a studio player than to his sterling skills as an improvising jazz musician. It was good, under any circumstances, to hear him in action, playing something more provocative than feature film cues.

As it turned out, the circumstances were first-rate, since Foster was surrounded by a fine ensemble. Sills is a gifted young tenor saxophonist, the inimitable Tom Rainer was at the piano, and two lesser known players -- bassist John Crooks and drummer Dean Koba -- provided solid rhythm-section support.

The most immediate reference points in the set recalled the fast-paced two-saxophone team of Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh in the ‘50s. Playing Marsh’s “Background Music” (based on the chords of “All of Me”) and Sills’ “Sharkey” (on the chords of “Cherokee”), Foster and Sills dashed through the rapidly twisting and turning melody lines, diving into solos balancing rhythmic swing with melodically intriguing improvisational explorations.

Rainer took the spotlight with a solo opening chorus of “My Foolish Heart,” framing the familiar melody in spare but emotionally potent harmonies. And “Friends Again,” yet another revision of a standard tune (“Just Friends,” in this case) climaxed the set with a brightly exuberant example of propulsive bebop.

Call the program a comfortably reassuring holiday gift: no probing avant-garde sounds, no edgy envelope-stretching; just imaginative, engaging, timeless jazz at its finest.